Territorial Dispute
This is the second episode of Vale, season 2. Written by Rainy. Read, enjoy, & comment! '' http://images.wikia.com/the-brighty-and-rainy/images/d/df/Territorial_Dispute.jpg ''Territorial Dispute Choice one, be a hero. Steps: alert camp to rogues outside, yell something amazingly brave about how SpringClan wasn't afraid of mangy trespassers, be hailed as amazing, become a warrior immediately, walk off into sunset with Bluebird. Choice two, be a wimp. Steps: hide. Choice three, be a Breezepaw. Steps as shown below. "ROGUES! THERE ARE CATS OUTSIDE AND THEY'RE ROGUES AND THEY'RE TRESPASSING AND YOU NEED TO WAKE UP RIGHT NOW!" Bleary-eyed SpringClanners poked their heads out of their respective dens, all staring at the crazed noisy apprentice in the middle of the camp. Oakstar emerged from his den, Mintwhisker by his side, and hurried toward me. "Breezepaw! What's all the racket about?" "I believe that she's yelling about us," a cool, partially amused voice said from the entrance of the camp. Collectively, all of SpringClan turned toward the cat who had spoken. She was white, with touches of ginger and hazel-gold eyes. Behind her stood two other cats, like bodyguards on either side of her. I gasped as my gaze fell on one of them. It was him. The rogue I had seen by the river when I was searching for Lilyshade. The black one, with glowing gold eyes. When our gazes connected, he gave me that same arrogant smirk, the one where one corner of his mouth went up and his eyes mocked me at the same time. I felt myself bristling. He wasn't going to get away this time, that was for sure. "What are you three doing here?" Oakstar asked, gently shoving me aside as he stepped forward to confront the rogues. Calm and collected, the she-cat swept her paw across the dust as she replied, "Oh, we figured we owed you guys a neighborly visit." The Clan leader scoffed at that. "We know you've been stalking us for days, and trespassing on our territory. Let me tell you something. We don't appreciate it when non-Clan cats come onto our territory. Okay? So now that we're clear on this, please don't do it again. SpringClan will thank you." Lazily, the black tom drawled, "And what if we don't wanna follow your rules?" He pulled a pouty face. "You gonna punish us by making us clean out the elders' den?" How do they know so much about Clan life? I wondered. Just how much have they gathered from their prying? Like she guessed what I was thinking, the other she-cat, a fluffy brown one with yellow eyes, mewed, "We know a lot about you guys. We even know about the murder. We saw those two cats that left your Clan. And you know nothing about us." "We know that you're a triplet of badger-brain no-sense young 'uns who think they can march into a Clan camp in the middle of the night and rob a bunch of respectable cats of their sleep," a sharp voice snapped. Good old Fuzzears. The cranky she-cat was standing outside the elders' den with an angry expression on her face. She winked at me before continuing her tirade. "You idiots better get your tail-ends out of here before Oakstar stops being his usual nicey-nice sappy self and sics his warriors on your sorry tails." "Excuse me?" said the white she-cat, eyes nearly bugging out of her head. Looking devilishly amused by his friend's chagrin, the black tom nudged her. "Lily, why don't we teach these creeps a lesson?" "Because, Ryan," the other she-cat said haughtily, "they outnumber us." Unable to make myself remain quiet, I snapped, "Oh, so you can storm into our camp and threaten us, but you're too cowardly to fight us?" The tom, whose name was apparently Ryan, grinned cockily back at me. "Who's cowardly? Lily and Chamomile might not want to fight, but I'm always-" "Ryan." That was Chamomile, the one with the fluffy fur. "Shut. Up." "Um. Not meaning to interrupt whatever little spat is going on, but I still don't know what you three are doing in my camp," Oakstar pointed out with an overly-friendly smile. Lily flicked her tail dismissively. "I was getting to that, once these two feather-brains would stop fighting. We're couriers, you see." Seeing that no one did see, she clarified, "Messengers. For our group/cause. Whatever you'd like to call it." "And that cause is?" Quailfeather said, coming to stand beside Oakstar. A smirk spread across her face. "Anti-Clan." "That's nice, but as a Clan, we're not interested in your marketing or whatever it is," Bluebird snapped. Even for speaking to a bunch of stupid rogues, he sounded extra-angry. But then again, he was under a lot of stress nowadays. He had Duskwatcher to deal with. In the span of a few short days, his older brother had gone from being the cat everyone wanted to talk to to the cat everyone was scared would suddenly turn on them. It was just that peculiar glint in Duskwatcher's eyes, the way he spoke: two factors that had emerged shortly after Shinecloud's death, and didn't seem likely to ever leave him. Poor Bluebird. "Just what do you aim to do against us? And why are you against us anyway?" Oakstar said. His tone was almost condescending; it was like he was speaking to a couple of silly babbling kits rather than intimidating rogues. Realizing they were being looked down upon, the three cats shot us stony glares. "Our group is something to be taken seriously," Lily said- she appeared to be the main talker. "Let me lay it down for you in simple terms. We want SpringClan gone. We want this territory open for everyone. Hogging it is stupid and unfair. Your warrior code means nothing to us, so why should we have to follow your rules?" Without thinking, I yawned loudly. Everyone turned to stare at me, astonishment on their faces. What? I wondered. What was so unusual about being bored to death while an airbrained rogue complained on and on? Besides, I had my assessment tomorrow. I needed my sleep. "Way to embarrass yourself," Minkpaw whispered in my ear, whiskers twitching. "Shut up," I mumbled drowsily. "Listen, you three," Quailfeather snapped. "We don't consider your 'group' a threat at all. Get out before we make you get out." At first, the cats didn't budge. Then, when Dewfrost and a couple of other warriors stepped forward, they exited quietly, Ryan still muttering to himself. Beside me, Minkpaw burst out laughing. Incredulously, I stared at her. "What's so funny?" "Them!" she snorted. "That was the biggest joke of a threat I've ever seen! And to think we were actually worried about those 'big, scary trespassers'!" "You don't think they're serious?" Gesturing around us, she showed me that most of the Clan appeared to be engaged in similar conversations, chuckling about the "pathetic attempt to disband our Clan". Somehow, this didn't sit right with me. "Why would they risk it all by coming into our camp to give us that message if they didn't have a good plan to back it up?" I asked. Minkpaw shrugged, brushing my suspicions off easily. "Maybe they're just stupid." Maybe... "... You will have until noon to hunt," Dewfrost went on. "Yellowsun, Cherrynose and I will be monitoring your progress, though you won't see us most of the time. We'll be judging both your technique as well as your prey intake. Remember, it's okay to be nervous, but don't let that take you over. Do your best and you'll be fine. Ready?" All four of us nodded, exchanging glances. "Good. Go!" I waited till I saw what direction each apprentice had taken before choosing my own and heading off into the woods. Around me, the trees were alive with prey. Birds twittered overhead, the undergrowth rustled, and tiny feet vibrated the ground underneath my paws. But what to catch first? Which kind of prey to go after? Finally, when I picked up a hot scent of squirrel across my trail, I decided on that and began to follow it, nose to the ground. Every thirty seconds or so, I stopped to listen and see if I was getting near, a trick Dewfrost had taught me. Once I picked up a faint chattering sound, I dropped to the ground, body tense and coiled in on myself, ready to spring. The squirrel was perched on the thick, gnarled root of a tree. I knew I'd have to be quick in order to catch it before it had time to climb the trunk. One... two... three... go! I pounced, feeling my claws dig into the squirrel. However, I'd overcalculated on the momentum, sending me into a whirling somersault. The squirrel dropped from my claws, but it was too late; by the time I came to a stop and padded back, the prey lay limp on the forest floor. "A little messy, but not bad." Dewfrost emerged from the bushes and gave me a nod. "Thanks," I said, highly disappointed with myself. Perhaps it hadn't been such a good idea to skip training yesterday after all. While I watched him pad off, I buried my prey and looked around for more. Hopefully things would go better on my next kill. "Yes!" I hissed in triumph as I killed my second sparrow, batting it to the ground with a swift paw. "Another great catch by the amazing Breezepaw," a voice crowed from above my head. I froze. "Dewfrost?" Then, more suspiciously, "Specklepaw? Minkpaw?" A pair of glowing eyes appeared in the foliage above my head. "Frankly," the cat mewed as he slithered down the tree trunk, "I'm offended you don't recognize me. Did our brief encounter not imprint itself forever into your mind?" "You mean under the title of 'Weird Stalker'? Yes it did," I replied, taking a step back as Ryan landed gracefully in front of me. He nodded towards the sparrow at my paws. "It would've been a smoother kill if you'd held your paw more steady." "That's none of your business. Oh, and I'd get out of here if I were you. My mentor could be watching right now." Ryan rolled his eyes. "Obviously I thought of that. I waited till no one was around." Creepiest thing I'd ever heard in my life, and it must've shown on my face. He laughed and winked at me. "I scare you, don't I?" Trying to stop my fur from ruffling, I gritted my teeth and snarled, "Why are you here?" "The group promotes polluting the minds of youth," he said nonchalantly. "Your opinions haven't been contaminated completely by all that warrior code rubbish and brainwashed by what we call a Clan mentality." "Actually, they have," I informed him. "I love SpringClan." He raised his eyebrows. "Then you should tell your feather-brained Clanmates not to take us so lightly." "I tried," I said with a sigh. "They won't listen. But while you're here, why don't you tell me what you mangy-pelts have in mind for my Clan, so I can rip your pelt off? And where is this group of yours camped out anyway?" "A tom never discloses his secrets- especially to nosy bossy she-cats." My temper flared. "Why you-" "Aren't you wasting time that you should be spending on your assessment?" he interrupted. Flattening my ears, I snapped, "Only thanks to you!" Casually flicking his ears, he yawned. "Right. Oh yeah. Sorry about that." I was literally shaking with anger. "Listen here, you-" "Watch your language," he said with a corresponding sneer. "I'll just be off now, but remember, rogues aren't naturally your enemies just because they're not SpringClan. We're cats too, you know. Just because we don't live the way you do doesn't make us inferior. And don't tell me that's not what you guys think about us, because I know it's true." His general confidence was being replaced by a more urgent tone. "And I'm tired of Clans thinking-" Here he cut himself off. "Anyway, bye." I opened my mouth to tell him how ridiculous he was being, but he was already gone. Whatever. Moronic rogues. Shaking the incident off, I went back to hunting. "We all passed the assessment!" Specklepaw yowled happily, tossing leaves in the air like streamers. "Uh huh. Like we knew we would," Minkpaw said, lazily batting a moss-ball from paw to paw. "What's the big deal?" Deflated, the tom sat down beside the rest of us. "What's got all you girls in a twist?" Each of us had a different answer. I knew, for a fact, that Daisypaw was upset with Specklepaw because she "felt like she was the only one caring in their relationship". I was driving myself nuts worrying about the rogues. And Minkpaw, well, Minkpaw was just cranky. The assessment had been yesterday, which was supposed to be a good day. After the assessment, I'd gone to visit the nursery, and then talked with Fuzzears for a solid hour about everything in the world. Yet, the elder had asked me what was wrong a thousand times, and each time I replied that I didn't know. Because I honestly didn't. Why did the rogues upset me so much if no one else seemed to care? Was I right in assuming there was more danger than met the eye, or was I overreacting? "Attack! They attacked her!" Cranelegs came dashing into the clearing- or at least, dashing as fast as he could with the limp form of a cat in his mouth. I thought I was going to be sick. Oh no. Not again. We couldn't handle another death. Lionpatch came racing out of his den, and looked like he would be sick when he saw the cat on the floor. "Blossompaw," he gasped, placing a paw on his apprentice's chest. "She's breathing, but she's lost so much blood... give me some space!" he roared. Everyone obeyed immediately. "It was the rogues, I know it was!" Cranelegs was yelling to anyone who would listen. "Their scent was all over her. I would've gone after them, but I knew I needed to bring her back immediately." "Good thing you did," Lionpatch said grimly. He went back to mopping away the blood from three deeply gauged scratches on Blossompaw's chest. Oakstar, trembling with rage, stalked into his den stiff-leggedly, the senior warriors and Quailfeather trailing after him. The rest of us gathered together in clumps, heads bowed and voices subdued. Until one voice rose above them all, high-pitched and half-crazed. "Kill them! Kill all the rogues! One of them is named Lily, just like Lilyshade! Murderers! Kill them all!" Duskwatcher. The End Category:Vale Category:WFW 1 Category:Action